


A problem for you to solve

by Bananas45



Category: B: The Beginning (Anime)
Genre: I'm Sorry, Jealousy, Late Night Conversations, Mind Games, Pre-Canon, i don't know what this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 07:45:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15814527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bananas45/pseuds/Bananas45
Summary: A part of his mind whispers that’s he’s always been the odd one out; the ace detective and the good doctor - what’s he but their intervening boss? They went to school together, they know everything about each other. What does he know?There is nothing worse than being their third wheel.





	A problem for you to solve

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't know what this is. It came to me very late last night and so I thought why not. Why not...which seemed like a great idea circa 4am.   
> It's deeply, deeply self indulgent ramblings...Enjoy? I promise I'll write something decent soon.

“Working late?” 

He sounds inconvenienced. 

Leant against the door, the heavy, synthetic overhead lighting catching the white of the lab coat in the most blinding white Eric has ever seen. Gilbert’s eyes look especially cold in the artificial sun, could probably trick anyone into thinking it was still daylight under those heavy curtains. There is something about Gilbert, something odd that makes his stomach drop and his hands feel cold, something dangerous but illusive. It’s unfair to judge because, Gilbert is just, well, Gilbert and some detached and logical part of Eric’s brain warns him that all this is is jealousy.   
It’s jealousy through and through.  
Pathetic jealousy. The type that neither Keith nor Gilbert have probably ever felt and that’s it isn’t it? It always comes back to Keith. Keith who’s amazing, who’s distant but entrancing, who’s eyes look past and into you simultaneously, Keith who’ll forget your name but remember your mothers birthday. Keith who’s coffee is so weak it’s practically water.   
“What are you thinking about?” Gilbert moves passed him. They’d always been close, all three of them really, but not close enough. Gilbert’s always been closer to Keith and Eric has always been closer to Keith than to Gilbert and Keith has always been...Mildly aggravated by both of them? Happily content to be quiet?   
A part of his mind whispers that’s he’s always been the odd one out; the ace detective and the good doctor - what’s he but their intervening boss? They went to school together, they know everything about each other. What does he know?  
“Toga?” It’s almost mocking but it passes for amused, like most things Gilbert does. He smiles that soft smile that lifts an eyebrow, halfway towards concern but closer in nature to sarcastic. He’s a real puzzle, Ross is. No wonder Keith adores him.   
“Sorry” He runs a hand through his hair and forces a smile. “Just...preoccupied”   
“Working all day and evidently all night will do that to you” Gilbert smiles and leans on his desk. “Can I get you anything?”   
“Is it my birthday?” Eric asks, incredulous. Gilbert’s smile quirks a little downwards but he’s still amused, perfectly amused.   
“No” Gilbert leans on the word, tilting his head as his tongue flickers over his top lip. “Shoot me for being concerned about you”   
This is new but then again. They’re a man down now, sort of, thanks to Eric - no, thanks to Keith, this isn’t his fault. Gilbert repeatedly told him so - told him so many times that Eric can’t quite believe it now. Tell me once more and I’ll be convinced, Gilbert.   
There is an unspoken question between them and Gilbert seems to be hanging around just to be asked, sharp blue eyes scanning the room as he waits in the drawn out silence for Eric to lose this game.   
And he does. He’s no match for Gilbert. He’s man enough to admit that.   
“Have you” He clears his throat, skims through another report. Aloof. “Spoken to Keith recently at all?”   
Gilbert seems to light up, as though he’s been bathed in heavenly light, like he’s just seen jesus or something. It’s mildly unnerving but it’s gone as fast as it came.   
“Keith? Oh yeah, a few times”   
Eric walked into that, he feels that snake pit of envy curl and slither around his stomach, A lightning bolt up his spine and a tremble all the way to his toes. Off course they’ve seen each other. Whether Gilbert notices is something else, his eyes, slid to watch Eric out of the corner of them, give nothing away.   
Gilbert laughs, sharp into the night. “Don’t look like that, Eric. Really it was just...” Gilbert trails off and whether it’s affected or genuine Eric can’t quite tell but he’s a detective and Gilbert knows that and this game is on easy mode for him clearly. Gilbert’s laugh is almost bashful, like he’s trying to hide something that is extremely obvious. “A drink or two” He finishes finally.   
Gilbert’s eyes shine, shout into Eric’s face with venom ‘You wish you were there don’t you? You wish you could be me. How many nights did you stay up when he taught you, thinking of him in a way you could never have him, how difficult is it to face me and not know what the two of us do. Are you jealous, Eric? Or are you ravenous?’ Or is he just reading to much into this.   
A part of him, cheap and dirty, wants to ask if Keith mentioned him but Gilbert would love that too much. 

“Oh Gilbert?” Keith had said once, leaning on his palm and smiling a lazy smile. “He’s a puppy under it all, doesn’t know what he wants and probably never will but he’ll chase just about anything if you throw him it” 

Eric had almost said that sounded self reflective. 

But the two of them, Gilbert and Keith, had always been terrifyingly similar and yet so utterly different. It’s just scary to know one of them must be faking. 

Eric wont pretend he understands them but he won't lie and say he doesn’t want to. Because he does. He’d die to be a part of their world. Give anything to understand the looks the exchange, the smiles the share, to know everything they’re not saying to each other and yet understanding.  
Gilbert tilts his head, oddly seductive, eyes heavy. “He didn’t mention you but we really were only talking about school”   
That. Yes, that there, that was calculated, that was cruel. It hit every perfectly vulnerably part of Eric. It tore into everything inch of him.   
“I wasn’t asking” He smiles, signs of a report with a heavy pen flick that almost rips the paper. It’s petty, calling Gilbert out but it’s all he can think off, he can’t stand to let him win even if he wins regardless. Gilbert’s nose twitches just a little, a strand of white hair falling across his forehead. Eric has an odd and slightly overwhelming urge to move it out the way. Maybe a small part of Eric wants to throttle Gilbert, wants to punch him in his stupid smarmy face but he wont. He will not do that. Would Keith Flick do that? No.   
Keith always told him not to rise to that sort of thing and so he won't.   
“Is archives killing him?” Eric asks, laughing softly at the idea, trying for conversation but unable not to add in that he knows how much Keith loved being a detective. ‘I know him too’ . Gilbert doesn’t buy it, just shrugs.   
“Keith is very good at adapting” Gilbert says. “You could put him anywhere and he’ll find a way to amuse himself”   
Its tone is telling. ‘You don’t know him, Eric’. Stop pretending you do. ‘You want to ask me don’t you? Ask me anything’ Gilbert stands just as Eric gives in, just as questions pool at the tip of his tongue, desperate and unrelenting.   
“Oh really, it’s so late” Gilbert stretches and yawns. “I should get going.”   
Eric hates him for a moment, for one childish moment, he truly hates him but Gilbert knows Keith, is the closest link he has to Keith, is the best way into Keith’s head from afar and an equally childish part of him doesn’t want to ruin that.  
Are you going to make me beg, Ross?  
He thinks of all the drinks they’ve gone for, the three of them, that have ended in two way conversations that Eric had just been enthralled to watch - to young and naive to care about joining in. Content just to stare. 

“I was re-reading the odyssey, you know. Your favourite, Gilbert” Keith was saying, beer untouched and playing with the lid between his fingers, elegant and crooked at the same time.   
Gilbert tilts his head, finger trailing the rim of his glass. “In the original greek?”   
“Not this time-”   
“Ahck” His eyes roll “You philistine” Gilbert tuts.

He was never good enough for them. Gilbert made sure he knew it and Keith, well he never made an effort to make it seem like he was. 

It eats at him as he watches Gilbert leave. Whether they were truly, truly together- whether Keith loved him. Could those two love? And what was he even saying - he was happy, he was so content, he didn’t even need either of them. What was so infectiously life ruining about Keith Flick? What was it about him that made you want to get too close. Knowledge that Keith wasn’t the type of person to ever consider giving back and yet a complete and overwhelming desire to be close to him. Moths and flames and all that crap.   
“Just give up” Gilbert says from the door, hand balanced on the frame, his smile sad, perfectly relaxed but Eric sees it, maybe through Keith’s eyes, the anger and need and desperation under that cold blue. “I’ve known him all my life”   
And it’s the truth. Some sad part of him wants to know how those two ended up such close friends. Maybe the ability to have someone on your level. Mental sparring that doesn’t end in a K.O. Maybe they both need to lose sometimes but looking into Gilbert’s eyes now, with that resigned sad smile, a cigarette already balanced in his hand, lighter at the ready, He sees you really can’t win against Keith Flick. Eric never wanted to but Gilbert? He wonders if he strays too close to the flame.   
Would it be cruel? Would it be cruel to make Gilbert stay? He’s clearly offering.   
But Flame and Moth seem to have a sweetheart deal and who’s Eric to put it out.   
Is there an ounce of innocence left in that man? Or is this calculated too. A seduction of the one person Keith still holds dear over the one he’s now lost. Him and Keith did always make Gilbert uncomfortable, that much was clear - god that was insane, what the fuck was he evening accusing him off? Envy does that though, doesn’t it?   
Would he feel better? To kiss the lips of someone who’s kissed the lips of his love? Could he drive a wedge between the good doctor and the ace detective? Could anyone?   
“Gilbert” He calls and he sees it - in one unguarded moment of victory he sees that Gilbert wants this. Wants Eric and not because he wants someone but because he wants the repercussions, wants the ecstasy of seeing it unfold, of ruining everything for Eric. He wants to watch the torrid of events that will unfold, that Keith will be unable to stop. The last ties to the friendship that made Eric who he is today- ruined. If Gilbert thinks that then he’s unbearably naive.   
He’s a siren, like in the odyssey, promising the truth and whatever else, some in depth knowledge of Keith if only Eric would give up everything and yes, Eric read it after that drink, in the original Greek to boot even if it took him two years. Not that he ever told Keith that.  
There is something toxic about Gilbert, even if it’s sad, even if a part of him wants to see if he could help, that makes him reconsider, that makes him sit back down. A strange and sudden fear seems to grip him, that sixth sense that prey have when they smell a hunter close by but Gilbert is no threat, surely? It’s just a mind trick, it’s midnight and he’s tired - strange Gilbert’s stayed so late too, maybe if he were more lucid he’d think more on it but instead, hands suddenly a little trembly he says  
“Have a safe drive”  
Disappointment, predatory in nature, spreads across Gilbert’s face. Like a lion that’s missed a gazelle his eyes flicker with unguarded self-loathing before he smiles. He wonders how Keith manages to handle these mind games because Eric feels sick and doubts he was anywhere close to completing it. Unless he was never meant to. He suppresses a shudder.   
“You too, Eric” He says, knocks twice against the door and leaves. 

Eric learns his lesson about working late and frankly, never does it again.


End file.
